Donald Mark Ritchie (born December 21, 1951) is an American politician and a former Minnesota Secretary of State. Ritchie was elected the 21st Minnesota Secretary of State on November 7, 2006. He was re-elected in 2010. He co-chairs the Minnesota USA Expo Bid Committee, serves as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for Minnesota, and is the President of Global Minnesota. He is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He was born in Georgia, lived in Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Iowa, Alaska, and graduated from high school in Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1971 and from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in 2013. He and his wife, Nancy Gaschott, have lived in Minnesota since 1980. Early life and career From 1986 until 2006, Ritchie served as the president of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a non-profit organization working with businesses, churches, farm organizations, and civic groups to foster long-term sustainability for Minnesota's rural communities. Among other issues, it looked into how global trade rules impact family farmers and rural communities. He also founded the League of Rural Voters. In 1994, Ritchie was a co-founder of the Global Environment & Trade Study, located at Yale University, which conducted research on the linkages and potential synergies between international trade and the environment. That year, he launched a series of conferences to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the major post-Second World War global institutions, including the World Bank, the IMF, the United Nations, The Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Human Rights Commission]]. The 1994 conference, held at the Mt. Washington Hotel, featured a return of many of the "old timers" who had attended the original 1944 Bretton Woods Conference and other founders of the postwar economic system. In 2000 during the presidential election, Ritchie was one of 52 farm and rural activists who formed "Family Farmers' National Alliance for Nader/LaDuke" to support the presidential campaign of Ralph Nader. In 2004, Ritchie took a leave of absence from the Institute to lead National Voice, a national coalition of non-partisan organizations from across the country made up of church, business, and community organizations. National Voice included over 400 Minnesota organizations that formed the Minnesota Participation Project. The national media campaign called "November 2" and the constituent organizations helped voters find new ways to get involved in the elections. Their goal